Gamers see Dark Souls as the birth of gaming’s “Soulslike” genre, introducing a new type of hardcore RPG to PS3, Xbox 360, and PC owners. Some new information has since shown that FromSoftware’s hit game could have been a PlayStation exclusive if Sony played its cards right. However, that didn’t happen and you have to wonder what kind of world we’d live in if it was.
Shuhei Yoshida, former Sony President, told the Sacred Symbols podcast that Sony wanted to publish Dark Souls, but FromSoftware denied them the chance. This is because Sony was originally going to publish its predecessor Demons’ Souls but backed out after trying the game and realizing how difficult it was. Because of this, Atlus and Bandai Namco published Demons’ Souls, and history was made.
“FromSoftware was already working on the sequel, but they were so disappointed with how PlayStation treated them, we wanted to work with them again but they passed on it,” Yoshida claimed (via VGC).
It’s interesting to think about how Dark Souls would have done if the game remained a PS3 exclusive. Demons’ Souls was a PS3 exclusive, which is ironic since Sony didn’t publish it, and the game didn’t initially make much of an impact. Many fans agree that they only gave the game a chance after Dark Souls came out, as it led to curiosity for the predecessor.
While we can’t outright say that the game would have bombed on PS3, it probably wouldn’t have done as well. The sequel was available on more consoles, so more players were able to try it out and realize its potential. Granted, Sony eventually got FromSoftware exclusives like Bloodborne and the Demons’ Souls remake, but that was after Dark Souls paved the way.
Now that fans want a Bloodborne remaster from Sony, it’s funny to see how things could have been different. Do we get Bloodborne if Dark Souls stayed on PS3? How about Elden Ring? There are a lot of questions to ask and we’re never going to get those answers. Still, it’s fun to speculate on what could have been.